TRAILING HISTORY DOWN THE BIG MUDDY
Photograph courtesy U. S. Army Engineers
THIS TYPE OF STERN-WHEEL STEAMER, DEVELOPED ON THE MISSOURI AND MISSIS
SIPPI, HAS SPREAD TO RIVERS AS FAR AWAY AS THE TIGRIS AND MAGDALENA
Flat-bottomed and of light draft, such boats are well adapted to shallow streams, where mud
banks and sandbars come and go, as currents shift. This Missouri River craft, operated by
U. S. Army engineers, is pushing bargeloads of poles and brush for making mats used in shore
protection work (see page io8).
enemy. Miles and Terry and Crook drove
the Redskin from the Yellowstone and
Missouri, civilization exterminated the
buffalo, but the mosquito still ranges un
checked over his ancient domain.
At Williston I passed the pumping works
of one of the few irrigation projects on
the Missouri. On account of its nature
and habits, gravity diversion on any ex
tensive scale is practicable at no point on
the Missouri below the Yellowstone. It
is done at Williston by pumping from
barges which rise and fall with the river
level; but costs are too high to water any
big acreage.
The second night after leaving the Yel
lowstone I made camp near the mouth of
Shell Creek, 152 miles from Bismarck.
Driven to the river by mosquitoes an hour
before daylight, I
"put to sea."
Both
breakfast and lunch I ate in the boat and
kept going till dark.
QUICKSANDS SUCK CATTLE DOWN
Early next day I passed the mouth of
the Little Missouri. Later the historic,
but long abandoned, site of old Fort Ber
thold slipped by. For miles along this
stretch I saw thousands of range cattle
in the water, seeking shelter from flies
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